March 2020, Vol. 247, No. 3

Obituaries

Obituaries

Gene Smith, chief metallurgist at EN Engineering and a longtime contributor to the development of pipeline industry standards, died Jan 1. He was 79.

A native of the Chicago area, Smith earned a degree in metallurgical engineering in 1962 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1965, he joined Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, where he later became a chief metallurgist.

Throughout his professional career, Smith chaired and participated in numerous industry committees, including API, NACE, ASTM and PRCI, and supported the development of numerous technical standards that improved the quality and safety of pipeline operations.

 

John Tiratsoo, 71, co-founder of the Pipeline Pigging and Integrity Management Conference and Exhibition (PPIM), died Nov. 10.

A degreed engineer, Tiratsoo began his career building roads and bridges in the U.K. for the Department of Transport and in Africa for the World Bank, later partnering with Clarion Technical conferences to develop numerous conferences related to pipeline pigging, integrity and risk management.

Tiratsoo served as editor of the Journal of Pipeline Engineering and Pipeline World and was instrumental in establishing the Professional Institute of Pipeline Engineers to promote pipeline engineering as a discrete engineering discipline.